Drug crackdown starts in Maywood

15 arrested, 8 others sought as authorities shut outdoor market

For at least two years now, residents on 20th Avenue near St. Charles Road in Maywood have been reluctantly watching a curbside drug sales operation.

"The dealers pull the plug on the street light to keep the street dark. They dump beer bottles in the alley," said one man, who asked not to be identified. "I didn't know about all this when I moved here a year ago. I sure picked the wrong house."

But police said life in that vicinity took a turn for the better on Wednesday when officers began rounding up 23 people on warrants, charging them with selling cocaine and heroin in an open-air drug market.

Officers arrested 15 of the 23 on Wednesday morning and are seeking the rest, said Maywood Police Chief Elvia Williams and Hillside Police Chief Joseph Lukaszek at a news conference.

Hillside police officers aided the investigation by making undercover drug buys, officials said, because the alleged dealers were familiar with many Maywood officers.

Williams has only been Maywood's police chief for just over a month, but the western suburb has been trying to rid the area of drug dealers for a while.

In March 2004, Maywood police said undercover investigations had netted the convictions of 25 for selling drugs on St. Charles Road and Madison Street.

In June of that year, Maywood police and Cook County sheriff's police arrested 13 following an undercover investigation.

The most recent undercover investigation on St. Charles was started in June by then-acting police chief Donald Mobley. The new chief, who grew up in Chicago's Austin neighborhood, said more investigations are under way. "[The dealers] may be migrating out here from Chicago, but our goal is to migrate them right out of our community," Williams said.

The dealers weren't shy about their business, she said. "They were on the streets at all hours, making noise, blocking the streets and blocking people's driveways. They were very blatant about it," Williams said.

Maywood police also are targeting other activities--including prostitution--that undermine the community's quality of life, she said. Reverse stings, in which female officers pose as prostitutes and then arrest their would-be customers, are planned, and Williams said she is working with the Village Board to toughen the curfew for juveniles by moving it up an hour from 11 p.m. weekdays and midnight weekends. Those arrested Wednesday allegedly are members of two gangs who shared the market, Williams said. All are charged with delivery of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a church, which is on the corner of 20th Avenue and St. Charles Road.

"We're sending a message to drug dealers that Maywood is not a place to do business," Williams said.